MAGA nation going bonkers?
Do you remember pizza gate? It’s ok if you don’t, many people have forgotten about it. But, to jog your memory in 2016 a man, convinced that Hilary Clinton’s campaign was part of a child sex ring, walked into a pizza store, armed for war! This man opened fire in the pizza shop, demanding that the “children” be released to him. Let that sink in, this man was fully convinced that a pizza store had child sex slaves in the back. To this day I wonder where he thought they had them, next to the dough mixer? Or in the back with the stacks of yeast?
Thank goodness no one was physically hurt in this incident, but this young man was clearly radicalised by a far right (the American version) ideology that Donald Trump has fully folded into his idea of MAGA. This is where it gets complicated and dangerous, because not everyone who voted for Donald Trump was a foaming at the mouth conspiracy theorist, many of them felt invisible, or ignored, or even vilified. The danger comes from the insane push for anyone that follows Trump or MAGA or however you want to label it, to all march in lockstep and believe each and every one of these crazy conspiracies. The danger comes from a man who’s true goal in life is to make more money and be more famous, no matter the cost.
This goes all the way back to Barack Obama and his birth certificate, before Trump had even fully entered politics (he always had his hands, and money involved). He spent years trumpeting about Obama not being a citizen, not having a birth certificate, being a muslim etc. But what is the truth? The truth is that Barack Obama may not have had the EXACT documents that these people demanded, but he was still a citizen, and he still provided enough evidence to show it. On a side note, documentation in the past was not digital, and humans are imperfect. One of my colleagues’ (US citizen) mother’s original government held birth certificate was lost when the building it was stored in, along with thousands of other people, was burned down. Would Donald Trump and his extreme followers now declare that his mother can’t be a US Citizen?
And ultimately this undermines the very idea of justice in the United States. Imagine a court of law where in order to prove yourself innocent, the prosecution demanded a SPECIFIC piece of evidence. They don’t care that your cell phone ping shows you in a different state, they don’t care that your credit card transactions show you eating at McDonalds in that state. NO! Why didn’t you post a picture of your fries on Instagram in order to prove your innocence? Not only are you guilty, you are SUPER guilty and deserve to be prosecuted forever.
If you need any more of an example on how unhinged and dangerous, let’s talk about the Osama Bin Laden death conspiracy theory. For a quick rundown, Osama Bin Laden was killed on May 2, 2011. However, in order to mitigate possible fallout or martyrdom, photos of his body were removed and he was buried at sea. Nine years later Trump retweeted an article claiming that Osama was not killed in the raid, but that it was actually a body double. Worse, he claimed that the timing of the announcement was to conflict with his show, Celebrity Apprentice! So, this man thinks, thousands of people, cause that’s how many it would take to execute a fraud like this, got together to damage his ratings? Has anyone come forward and claimed whistleblower protections on this? Has there been anything more than a whisper from the darkest parts of the internet about this? No, no and no.
But let’s take a step back from specific examples of far right MAGA extremists, and look at what it is exactly they are demanding of you. America is a complicated country, and one that many people don’t understand. America is vast and varying, with different kinds of people of all stripes, colours and types. That’s part of what makes America…well, amazing. America’s strength comes from its differences. But that doesn’t fit into the extremist point of view. They want you to believe what they believe, and to support what they support. Worse, they don’t want to present you with any evidence, any explanation, nothing. I tell you the truth and you accept it. Don’t think for yourself. If your neighbour thinks differently, not only is he wrong, but he’s bad, rotten, evil. The very people that claim to be evil are the ones slapping the label on everyone else.
And before everyone starts to pile on “Republicans” the extremism of Trump’s MAGA hardliners has no loyalty to anyone. How many of these people have accepted the fact that Ted Cruz is the zodiac killer simply based on what Trump has said? How quickly has Trump turned on his former Vice President Mike Pence when they differed on some views? Anyone that steps out of line, is quickly labelled an enemy.
That’s because MAGA extremism is not a political movement, it is not conservative or liberal, it’s a cult. While many people have their reasons for joining a cult, they aren’t always bad when they join, they eventually either leave or drink the kool aid, and those that drink the kool aid are going to be the loudest trying to get others to drink it too. But let’s make sure that we look at who’s the head of this cult, it’s not David Karesh nor Charles Manson. The cult of MAGA is not even led by a clown, the clown’s goal in life is to make people laugh with their funny antics. No, the cult of MAGA is led by a jester. A jester wants nothing more than to sling mud and make people laugh at those in power, and that’s all Trump is, a small man throwing insults and trying to convince people that he knows more than the king aka the entire US GOVERNMENT.
